Obviously this did nothing to stop the economic rot, and Egypt soon found itself so in hock to British and French banks, that the whole country was essentially put into their receivership in October of 1876. Of course the locals weren't very happy with this, so the inevitable revolt against the foreign creditors occurred in 1881. This threatened both the British banker's investments, and the now-vital canal link to India. So the British Imperial impulse immediately kicked into gear, resulting in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, the seizure of both the canal and the country by British troops, and finally the country's absorption into the British Empire.

In 1882, Ahmed Urabi, an Egyptian general, led a rebellion against the Egyptian Khedive, a viceroy to the Ottoman Empire, as at the time Egypt was an Ottoman vassal. The British had strong interests in Egypt, due to among many other things, the Suez Canal, and so, supported the Khedive. At about this time, the Khedive asked the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for help, but received none. Then on June 11th, 1882, riots began, in which 50 European business men, and 250 Egyptians were killed. Though the actual cause of the riots were unknown, the British, blamed it on Ahmed Urabi, bombarded Alexandria, and landed a force in the Canal Zone, a area including the Suez Canal, and proceeded to wipe out Ahmed Urabi's army. On September 13, 1882 the British under Garnet Wolseley, fought and won the Battle of Tel el-Kebir. Ending Urabi rebellion, and restoring the Khedive to the throne. Though it was at first was meant to be a short term occupation, but was dragged out for many reasons, until, Egypt found it's self a protectorate, and later, a Dominion.

By the end of the 18th century, the Ottomans, focused on fighting the Russians had focused their resources on protecting their European territories and were only weakly holding on to Egpyt.

Napoleon realized that even though the Suez Canal had not been built, the British were still able to land resources from India in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, haul them across the Levant, and sail them to Europe on the Mediterranean. Napoleon directed the French army to invade Egypt and Palestine to deprive England of this ability.

After Napoleon was defeated, the Ottomans were not able to properly reassert themselves over Egpyt. Muhammed Ali, a Mamluk, established the Khedivate of Egypt which was an independent state in all but name. The British supported Muhammed Ali to prevent the Ottomans from ever reconquering Egypt. Muhammed Ali's British backed dynasty ruled Egypt until the overthrow of king Farouk in 1952.